Cops: Woman Faked Abduction to Avoid Paying Workers

A California woman who said she had been kidnapped, robbed, tied up, and possibly sexually assaulted was making it all up because she didn't want to pay her subcontractors, according to police in Fresno. Police say 32-year-old Maria Gonzalez claimed two black men armed with a handgun abducted her Saturday when she stopped her car for two dogs crossing the road, the Fresno Bee reports. Gonzalez, who runs her father's trucking company, claimed the men stole $9,000 from her purse that she was going to pay subcontractors with. Police say they discovered her story was fake only after an extensive investigation and more than two hours of interrogation, reports ABC News.

Police say that Gonzalez—who showed up at a residence Saturday "partially bound and gagged"—confessed to faking the kidnapping after inconsistencies in her story surfaced and they showed her a video of the area where she had supposedly been abducted. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says she made up the story because she didn't have the $9,000 to pay the workers. He says she will be charged with filing a false police report. "Not only did this create an enormous amount of work and pulled our detectives off other cases ... it created a lot of fear in our community,” the chief says. (More kidnapping stories.)